Commonly, a storage rack of the type noted above has multiple bays and multiple tiers and comprises horizontally spaced, upright frames including upright columns, cross braces, and support beams. The support beams extend horizontally between the upright columns, at the front of the storage rack and at the back thereof, in vertically spaced pairs. The beams of each pair are adapted to support a pallet load on their upper edges.
In designs in widespread use, each support beam is formed from sheet steel in one piece or two pieces and is welded so as to have a hollow, tubular profile. Generally, the beam profile is rectangular except for a ledge, which has defined a horizontal surface facing upwardly and a vertical surface facing inwardly. In each pair of support beams, the ledges are adapted to support a wooden or steel deck or spaced wooden or steel braces, which is or are omitted in some installations. Storage racks comprising support beams according to these designs are available commercially from Unarco Material Handling (now a division of UNR industries, Inc.) of Chicago, Ill., under its STURDI-BILT trademark.
Commonly, the beam profile defines a flat, generally vertical, outer surface, on which it is known to apply a label bearing machine-readable indicia, such as bar code indicia, human-readable indicia, such as alpha-numeric indicia, or both so as to assist in inventory management. Also, it is known for such indicia to be directly applied to the outer surface of the support beam, as by stenciling. Usually, it is not effective to apply such indicia to generally horizontal surfaces of such a beam, since such surfaces tend to be partially or completely obscured by pallet loads. Ordinarily, if bar code indicia are applied, a bar code reading wand is used to read such indicia.
Whether such indicia are applied via a label or directly, it can be very difficult for a person standing on a support surface or sitting on a lift truck to read such indicia applied to such an outer surface of a support beam, particularly if the support beam is located at a high or low elevation relative to the person. If such indicia are bar code indicia, such difficulty is exacerbated, since it is desirable if not necessary to point a bar code reading wand along a generally perpendicular line of sight to a surface marked with bar code indicia for such indicia to be effectively read.
These storage racks are often used in a warehouse where such a rack is located next to a wall or such racks are placed in a back-to-back configuration. If a fire occurs, all of the loads stored on the racks may be burned and damaged since the fire can spread easily due to the close proximity of the racks. To prevent this, warehouses use fire extinguishing systems. These systems commonly comprise fire extinguishers located in close proximity to the loads. However, a significant problem with such a system is that the rack beams are usually within the spray patterns created by the fire extinguishing devices and only serve to deflect the fire extinguishing fluid off of the loads.
One aspect of this invention is addressed to a perceived need for a support beam providing a better way to apply such indicia so that such indicia can be easily read if the support beam is at a high or low elevation relative to such a person. Another aspect of this invention is addressed to a need for a support beam that provides a better way to extinguish a fire in a burning load.